The Mariners announced that Luke Raley has been placed on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to July 31) due to left forearm strain. Outfielder Stuart Fairchild was selected from Triple-A to take Raley’s spot on the active roster, and no other move was needed to bring Fairchild up since Seattle had two open spots on its 40-man roster.
Raley has been reportedly playing through elbow discomfort for some time, which probably explains his drastic cold spell over the last two months. After hitting .280/.345/.587 with 13 homers in his first 166 plate appearances, Raley has posted only a .441 OPS (.152/.200/.241) with two homers in his last 121 trips to the dish.
A stint on the injured list was probably overdue in the wake of those ugly numbers, and more details should soon emerge about the severity of the strain. The worst-case scenario would be that Raley caused a more serious injury by playing with his elbow pain for so long, and is now facing a season-ending situation like a Tommy John surgery or a brace procedure.
Though Raley hasn’t been producing much lately, his absence puts Seattle down another bat just a day after J.P. Crawford was also sent to the 10-day IL (due to wrist inflammation). It’s been a rough stretch overall for the M’s, whose 6-14 record in their last 20 games may be leaning the club towards something of a selling direction at the trade deadline.
Fairchild signed a minor league deal with Seattle in July, and he’ll now see some action with his second team of the 2026 season after he previously had a .565 OPS over 27 PA and 14 games with the Guardians. He briefly played for the Mariners in a three-game cup of coffee in 2022 before being traded to the Giants. Fairchild is a fourth-outfielder type who can capably play all three positions, but he doesn’t add much offensively apart from some solid base-stealing ability.
